Large pet bed

Repurpose some old wooden furniture into a large pet bed using a selection of colours from the Resene Colorwood range

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Ways with wood with Mark Rayner – 67.

Difficulty level: Challenging

You will need: 40mm nails, 40mm screws, a clean cloth, drill with 25mm wooden drill bit and hole-cutting attachment, electric drill, electric screwdriver, hammer, offcuts of old wooden beading and moulding, an old headboard, old wooden desk, paintbrushes, including an artists’ brush, pencil, PVA glue, sandpaper, saw, set square, tape measure and wooden feet from an old sofa.

To get the look: Mark painted the background wall with Resene SpaceCote Flat tinted to Resene Alabaster.

Other ideas: Create a smaller pet bed from an old drawer and finish off with Resene Colorwood tinted to Resene Japanese Maple and Resene Aquaclear.

Step one
Carefully disassemble the old desk and cut the drawer section in two, as shown. The larger half will form the main body of the pet bed.

Step two
Remove all drawer runners and build a new side wall from the other half of the drawer section. Strengthen the base with ply cut from the top of the desk, as shown. Strengthen side and back edges with offcuts of wood, fixing with PVA glue and nails.

Step three
Attach the old sofa feet to the base. Drill corresponding holes in the base to accommodate the feet ‘pegs’ (if necessary) and fix firmly with PVA glue and screws. Allow glue to dry.

Step four
Cut and fix two sections of headboard to the front of the bed, as shown, and attach old wooden beading and moulding for decoration. Drill 25mm holes in the base to allow bedding to remain aerated. Sand the whole bed and then wipe off any sanding residue.